System for parallelizing and drawing textile fibers



Sept. 4, 1956 SYSTEM FOR Filed Nov. 10, 1953 R. LEPOUTRE 2,761,179PARALLELIZING AND DRAWING TEXTILE FIBERS 2 Sheets-Sheet l R. LEPOUTRESept.- 4, 1956 SYSTEM FOR PARALLELIZING AND DRAWING TEXTILE FIBERS FiledNov. 10, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.7

Fig.6

United States Patent O SYSTEM FOR PARALLELIZING AND DRAWING TEXTILEFIBERS The invention has as its object to provide a drawing system forparallelizing and drawing textile fibres of every type and quality(animal, vegetable, artificial, synthetic, mixed or unmixed), saiddevice to be used for the drawing operation preceding the spinningoperation proper, instead of actual known drawing systems such asdrawing frames with porcupine-rollers, gill-boxes, screw-gills withfallers, gill-boxes with double set of fallers etc.

The invention also has as its object to provide a drawing system freefrom the disadvantages of drawing systents having screws and fallers,gill-boxes, said disadvantages being, amongst other things, a maximumspeed of the fallers sets limited to 6 to 7 metres, high cost ofconstruction, rapid wear of the members due to the jerky movement of thefallers or needles-bars, noisy operation, considerable maintenance orthe like.

In view of these disadvantages, the subject of the invention is adrawing system for textile fibres of the type which comprises, betweenthe pair of feeding cylinders and the pair of drawing cylinders, a lowerset of circular combs or porcupine rollers and an upper set of circularcombs or porcupine rollers, in combination, the said system beingcharacterized in that the needles of the upper porcupine rollersintermesh with the needles of preceding and succeeding rollers in theupper set and that the needles of the lower rollers likewise intermeshwith the needles of preceding and succeeding rollers in the lower set.

In order to make the invention readily understood, and at the same timeby way of a constructional example, a constructional form of anintersecting drawing system having porcupine rollers will hereinafter bedescribed and diagrammatically illustrated in the accompanying drawingsin which:

Figure l is a schematic side elevation view of an intersecting drawingsystem having porcupine rollers,

Figs. 2, 3, 4 and are fragmentary schematic side elevations showingmodifications,

Fig. 6 is a plan partially in section approximately on the line VI-VI inFig. 1, and

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary plan of three of the porcupine rollersshown in Fig. 5.

According to these figures, and as far as the principle of constructionof an intersecting drawing system having porcupine rollers according tothe invention is concerned, 1 and 2 designate the feeding cylinders and3 and 4 designate a pair of drawing cylinders having a common pressurecylinder 5.

6 designates the porcupine rollers forming the lower set and 7 those ofthe upper set, the needles of the porcupines 6 of the lower setintermeshing with one another, while the needles of the porcupines 7 ofthe upper set are interlacing with one another, the needles in this casebeing gill-pins.

The upper set is formed by a plurality of porcupine rollers 7 and ispivotable, which enables it to be opened laterally up to 95 both whilein operation and While at rest.

The disposition of the double drawing cylinders 3 and ice 2 4 enablessame to approach to about 22 mm. from the nipping point at the egress ofthe needles of the last pair of porcupine rollers 6 and 7, it beingpossible to reduce this distance still further, as illustrated in Figure2, by the addition of a pair of rollers 8 and 9 which serve to confinethe fibres in the space between the porcupine rollers 6 and 7 and thedrawing cylinders 3 and 5 and also they remove any static electricitythat may have been generated by the frictional sliding of the fibresduring the drawing operation. The additional rollers 8 and 9' areparticularly useful for drawing short fibres.

10 is a de-electrifying device arranged after the drawing system 3, 4, 5at the egress of the sliver 15 on its way to a canner or beamer.

11 and 12 are automatic electric anti-tufting stop devices, and 13 and14 are circular brushes which keep the porcupine rollers clean.

This intersecting drawing system having porcupine rollers formedaccording to the invention has many advantages amongst which are:increased speed which, from the mechanical point of view, is almostunlimited and the maximum of which is dependent upon the nature of thefibres being worked, for example, an inlet speed of 30 to 35 metres:being possible with wool, this resulting in a substantial increase inproduction; simplified construction and therefore reduced cost price;less driving energy for a given output; easy maintenance, lesslubricating of a number of members; self-stripping and, consequently,fewer stoppages for cleaning, and a working-up that is more constantlyclean than with the fallers; noiseless running.

Finally, as far as the operation of the intersecting drawing systemhaving porcupine rollers according to the invention is concerned,experiments have proved that per fect parallelizing and drawing of thefibres is obtained and that for this reason, on similar fibrousmaterial, the amounts or outputs of fibrous material drawn are superiorto those obtained on an intersecting gill-box with gill-bars or fallers.

It is of course understood that, without departing from the scope of theinvention, improvements, modifications. and additions may be madethereto, while the employment of equivalent means may also becontemplated. Thus the porcupines 6 and 7 of the lower and upper setsmay be employed according to the arrangements: illustrated in Figures 3,4 and 5, in which:

In Figure 3, the centres A, B, C and D form an equiangular andequilateral square, the porcupinerollers A, C having identical steelpinning or studding and B, D having a studding which is offset in orderto ensure penetration.

In Figure 4, the centres A, gram the angles a, b of which are acute andthe angles 0, d of which are obtuse, so that the porcupine rollers B, Dare tangential to the point 0.

In Figure 5, the centres A, B and C form an equilateral triangle, theaxes of the porcupine rollers being staggered so that the needles ofcertain rollers of the upper set intermesh with the needles of tworollers of the lower set.

What I claim is: 1

1. A drawing system for a sliver of textile fibres, comprising a pair offeeding rolls, a pair of drawing rolls, said sliver traveling in asubstantially straight line from said feeding rolls to said drawingrolls, a plurality of procupine rollers having projecting needles andcomprising a set of at least two porcupine rollers above the sliver anda corresponding set of porcupine rollers below the sliver, the needlesof each porcupine roller of the upper set overlapping and intermeshingwith the needles of the corresponding porcupine roller of the lower setand the needles of successive porcupine rollers in each of said setsoverlapping and intermeshing with the needles of adjacent porcupinerollers in the same set the overlapping of the B, C and D form aparalleloneedles of said rollers being such that the zone ofintermeshing of each of said lower rollers with an associated upperroller extends substantially to the zone of intermeshing of the nextadjacent lower roller with an associated upper roller so as to subject asliver to a substantially continuous drawing and combing action as ittravels from said feeding rolls to said drawing rolls.

2. A drawing system according to claim 1, in which the needles ofcertain porcupine rollers of one set inter-mesh with the needles of tworollers of the other set.

3. A drawing system according to claim 1, in which a pair ofde-electrifying and confining rollers is disposed between said porcupinerollers and said drawing rolls in position to engage the sliver.

4. A drawing system for a sliver of textile fibres, comprising a pair offeeding rolls, a pair of drawing rolls, said sliver traveling in asubstantially straight line from said feeding rolls to said drawingrolls, a plurality of porcupine rollers between said feeding rolls anddrawing rolls, each of said porcupine rollers comprising a cylinder anda multiplicity of flexible needles projecting from said cylinder, thecircle defined by the tips of said needles being herein termed theneedle circle, said porcupine rollers comprising an upper set ofrollers'disposed above the sliver and a lower set of rollers disposedbelow the sliver, said rollers being so disposed that the needle circleof each porcupine roller of said upper set intersects and overlaps theneedle circle of a corresponding roller of the lower set and the needlecircles of the porcupine rollers of each of saidsets intersect andoverlap the needle circles of preceding and succeeding porcupine rollersin the same set by an amount approximately equal to half the radii ofsaid needle circles so as to subject a sliver to a substantiallycontinuous drawing and combing action as it travels from said feedingrolls to said drawing rolls.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS755,347 Bietenholz Mar. 22, 1904 1,323,885 McBride Dec. 2, 1919 FOREIGNPATENTS 3,376 Great Britain of 1902

